Akai rack sampler storage help

Hi all, this is my first post here and warning: possible "duh" questions ahead.

I intend to get a vintage Akai rack sampler, one of S2800/S2800i/S3000/S3200. Until now I have only been considering units that have either a USB floppy emulator drive installed, or a so-called SCSItoSD or ZuluSCSI because I do not want to work with floppy disks. However, I read that floppy emulators pose issues when working with samples larger than 1.44MB since they are emulating floppies. So in truth I am only considering SCSItoSC and ZuluSCSI interfaces, which are very expensive and even more so with shipping.

But now it's dawning on me that I could load my samples into the sampler through the analog inputs and bypass the need for these expensive SCSI interfaces. I'd like your opinions on whether this is a good strategy or not, since I have never worked with these oldschool samplers. Will it become too tedious having to trim and name each sample?

And most importantly, would not using any floppies, floppy emulators, or SCSI interfaces prevent me from saving my work?

Thank you in advance

If you don't mind resampling audio content every time you use the sampler, and never saving anything (other than what you use and then sample off onto another device)... then yeah... you don't need to worry about storage at all.

The USB Floppy emulation is problematic due to the speed, they load slowly, and the 1.44mb limit is pretty touch when you have 32mb of memory and want to use all of it.

The SCSItoSD or ZuluSCSI interfaces are going to be your best bet to work with, and depending on your device may allow you to also emulate sample CDs so that you could load those too.

Honestly, it's going to come down to your own workflow and how much you intend to work on and save samples, versus just recording, playing back to get the tone/character and never going back to the device for that specific sample.

floppy emulators are not as bad as some people suggest. But as NearTao says, it's up to your workflow and what works for you. I use floppy emulators in the EPS and ASR10 samplers and they work perfectly fine for me. But I worked with floppies for years, so a floppy emulator seems like a dream come true compared to that.

If you find Zulu scsi too expensive -- there used to cheaper, built your own kits. But last time I looked they were all out of stock.
Buy your sampler first, then down the track when you save up the $100 dollars for a Zulu scsi, add it.

Have you had any experience using rack mounted gear? I find them an absolute pain the ass to work with if they are racked up and you have to sit on the floor doing your editing. Mount it at eye level, or get a desktop keyboard sampler instead.
The hassle of working with rack samplers is a strong reason to get a floppy emulator or Zulu scsi, you don't want to have to start from stratch everytime you want to use the sampler.

i have an AKAI S3000 but don't use a floppy emulator
i use a SCSI CF in a rack (so i can connect multiple samplers to it)
yes, the whole process of sampling, arranging into presets and storing your work is a bit tedious, especially when compared to modern computers

Thanks for the feedback guys, the sampler has finally arrived (AKAI S2800i). It has a SCSI port on the back, one of those long 50-pin "Centronics" ports. I've made sure everything works and decided it's a good idea to get set up with the ZuluSCSI so I can actually save my work. Just want to run these items by you before I place my order. Apart from a MicroSD card which I can buy locally, is this everything I need to get up and running?

ZuluSCSI RP2040 Mini
https://studio-services.de/produkt/zulu ... 2040-mini/

Centronics 50 pin Male to DB25 Male cable
https://studio-services.de/produkt/scsi ... 00-series/

DB25 Male to DB25 Female converter
https://studio-services.de/produkt/scsi-dsub-auf-dsub/

Thank you in advance,
Quentin